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Driver Guide

I Paid For Repairs To The Company Truck — Do I Get It Back?

It's nine at night, you're four hundred miles out, and something's gone on the truck that has to be fixed before it moves. Nobody's answering the maintenance line. So you put it on your own card, because the load still has to get there.

I've been driving since 1999 — running local now, ran brokered freight over the road before that. That situation happens to everybody eventually, and there are really only three questions that follow: do I get paid back, can I write it off, and can they make me eat it? The answers are clearer than you'd expect, and one of them changed recently in a way most drivers haven't heard about.

First, which one are you?

This fork decides every answer below, so it's worth being precise about it.

Most people typing this question into a search bar are the first one. That's who the next few sections are written for; the leased-on case gets its own section further down.

Do you get the money back?

Normally, yes. The truck belongs to the carrier, so keeping it running is the carrier's expense, and virtually every company has a way to pay a driver back for something he covered on the road.

The problem is never the principle. It's the paperwork. A reimbursement request that arrives the same week with a receipt, a truck number, a date and an authorization number gets paid without a conversation. The same request three weeks later, with a faded receipt and "I called somebody, I don't remember who," turns into a negotiation you will probably lose.

⚠️ The write-off you've heard about doesn't exist anymore

This is the part worth reading twice, because most of the advice still floating around the internet is out of date and nobody updated it.

It used to be that a W-2 employee could deduct unreimbursed work expenses as a miscellaneous itemized deduction on Schedule A, subject to a 2% floor. Plenty of drivers did exactly that with out-of-pocket repairs, tools and gear.

The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act suspended that deduction starting in 2018, and the One Big Beautiful Bill Act made the suspension permanent. There is no scheduled date on which it comes back.

So for 2026: if you're a W-2 company driver and the company does not pay you back, there is no federal deduction for it. The money is simply gone.

Which changes the stakes on the paperwork completely. Getting reimbursed isn't the convenient option anymore — it's the only option. A handful of states still allow some version of the deduction on the state return, so it's a fair question for a preparer who knows your state. Federally, it's closed.

Note the contrast: an owner-operator deducts repairs as an ordinary business expense, the same as always. None of this applies to him. It's specifically the employee who lost the deduction.

Why "accountable plan" is worth knowing

When a carrier reimburses you properly — the expense has a real business connection, you substantiate it within a reasonable time, and you hand back any excess advance — the IRS calls that an accountable plan, and the money is not wages. No income tax on it, no payroll tax. You're just getting your own money back.

When it isn't done properly, the payment is supposed to be treated as wages — and then it's taxed, which means a $400 repair comes back as something less than $400.

That's the practical reason to submit a real receipt through the real process instead of asking for "a couple hundred on the next check." It isn't bureaucracy for its own sake. It's the difference between whole money and taxed money.

Can they take it out of your pay?

Sometimes — and there are limits.

Under the federal Fair Labor Standards Act, deductions for things that primarily benefit the employer — tools, equipment, damage to company property — cannot reduce your pay below the federal minimum wage for the hours you actually worked, and cannot cut into overtime premium pay.

On top of that, state wage-deduction laws vary a lot. Many states require your written authorization before anything comes out at all. Some bar deductions for damage or loss entirely, regardless of what you signed.

So "they took it out of my check" is neither automatically legal nor automatically illegal. It depends on the amount, your hours that week, what you signed, and which state you're in. If the number is large enough to matter, that's a conversation for a wage-and-hour attorney in your state, not a conversation for a forum.

Six things to do, in order

1 · Get an authorization before you spend, if you possibly can

One phone call to dispatch or the maintenance line, and a note of who said yes and when. Most carriers issue a repair authorization number.

This single step is the difference between a routine reimbursement and a month of emails.

2 · Photograph the receipt before you leave the shop

Thermal paper fades. The picture does not. Capture it in the parking lot, not at the end of the week.

Get the truck number and the date in the shot, or write them on the receipt first.

3 · Send a written note the same day

Truck number, date, what failed, what you paid, who authorized it. Text or email — anything that carries a timestamp on their side too.

You are not building a case. You are making sure there is a record if one is ever needed.

4 · Submit through whatever the official process is

Expense form, driver app, trip envelope — use the channel the company actually pays from, not just a conversation.

A reimbursement that goes through the proper process is far more likely to be treated as non-taxable.

5 · Check the next settlement or paycheck against what you submitted

Confirm the reimbursement actually landed, and that it is a separate line rather than quietly folded into wages.

If it came through as wages, tax came out of money that was supposed to be a refund of your own spending.

6 · If something was deducted instead, read it carefully

Amount, hours you worked that week, and whether you ever signed anything authorizing deductions.

Federal law sets a floor at minimum wage; your state may add more protection on top.

If you're leased on instead

Different question, different answers. You're not an employee, so the repair is an ordinary business expense on your own books and it's deductible in the normal way — none of the W-2 problem above applies to you.

What you're checking instead is the chargeback on your settlement: whether the amount deducted matches the actual invoice, and whether your lease permitted that charge in the first place. Under the federal Truth-in-Leasing rules, chargebacks have to be dealt with in the lease — they can't just appear.

It's worth knowing exactly how far that goes, because it is further than most people assume. 49 CFR 376.12(h) says the lease has to clearly specify all items that may be initially paid for by the carrier but ultimately deducted from your compensation — together with a recitation of how the amount of each item is to be computed. That second half is the part that matters. It isn't enough for a lease to say “repairs may be charged back.” The lease is supposed to tell you how the number is arrived at. If a charge lands on your settlement and nobody can point to the clause that produces that figure, that is a fair and specific question to ask — and it is a much better question than “why did you take this?”

There's a companion rule worth knowing at the same time. 49 CFR 376.12(i) provides that you are not required to purchase or rent any products, equipment or services from the carrier as a condition of entering into the lease. Carriers are allowed to offer them, and plenty of drivers take the offer because it's convenient or genuinely cheaper. What the rule addresses is being required to. If a shop, a tyre programme or an insurance product is presented as something you have no choice about, that is worth reading your lease over carefully.

HaulProof reads settlements line by line, so a repair chargeback gets caught in the same week it appears rather than found months later. Photograph the shop receipt and it's filed with the vendor, date and amount attached — which is exactly the record a reimbursement or a dispute runs on.

See how HaulProof works → Read a settlement line by line

The whole thing in one line

Get it authorized, photograph the receipt, put it in writing the same day, and submit it through the real process — because for a W-2 driver in 2026 reimbursement is the only way that money comes back.

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Common questions

I paid for a repair on my company truck. Do I get that money back?

Usually yes, but through reimbursement, not through your taxes. The truck belongs to the carrier, so maintaining it is the carrier's cost, and almost every company has a process for paying a driver back when he covers something on the road. The catch is that the process is built around paperwork: the receipt, the truck number, the date, and usually a repair authorization number someone gave you over the phone. Turn those in the same week and reimbursement is routine. Turn them in a month later with no authorization number and it becomes an argument.

Can I write it off on my taxes if they don’t pay me back?

If you're a W-2 company driver, no — and this is the part that trips people up, because the internet is full of advice from before 2018. Unreimbursed employee business expenses used to be a miscellaneous itemized deduction on Schedule A, subject to a 2% floor. The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act suspended that starting in 2018, and the One Big Beautiful Bill Act made the suspension permanent. So for 2026 there is no federal write-off for a W-2 employee's unreimbursed work expense. Reimbursement from your employer is the only tax-advantaged route left. Some states still allow a version of the deduction on the state return — worth asking a preparer who knows your state.

What’s an “accountable plan” and why does it matter?

It's the IRS's name for an employer reimbursement arrangement that is set up properly: the expense has a business connection, you substantiate it to the employer within a reasonable time, and you return any excess advance. When a reimbursement meets those conditions, it is not wages — it does not show up as taxable income to you and no payroll tax comes out of it. When it doesn't meet them, the carrier is supposed to treat the payment as wages, which means it gets taxed. That is the whole practical reason to hand in a real receipt with a date and a truck number instead of asking for “a couple hundred on the next check.”

Can the company take repair costs out of my paycheck?

Sometimes, and it is bounded. Under the federal Fair Labor Standards Act, deductions for things that primarily benefit the employer — tools, equipment, damage to company property — cannot cut your pay below the federal minimum wage for the hours you worked, and cannot eat into overtime premium pay. On top of that, most states have their own wage-deduction laws, and many require your written authorization before anything comes out at all. A few states bar deductions for damage or loss outright. So “they took it out of my check” is not automatically legal and is not automatically illegal — it depends on the amount, your hours, and your state.

What if I’m leased on, not a company driver?

Then it is a different question entirely. On a leased-on arrangement the repair normally appears on your settlement as a chargeback or a deduction, and what the carrier may charge you for has to be dealt with in the lease under the federal Truth-in-Leasing rules. You are also not an employee, so the expense is a business expense on your own books — deductible in the ordinary way, unlike the W-2 case above. The thing to check is whether the amount they charged matches the invoice, and whether the lease actually allowed that charge.

They told me to pay and said they’d “take care of it later.” Now what?

Put it in writing the same day, while it is still easy. A short message to dispatch — truck number, date, what failed, what you paid, who authorized it — costs you two minutes and creates a dated record on their system as well as yours. Almost every reimbursement dispute that goes badly went badly because the only record was a verbal conversation and a receipt that faded. The message is the part that survives.

How long should I keep the receipt?

Longer than you think, and photograph it the day you get it. Repair receipts print on the same thermal paper as fuel receipts — no ink, just a heat reaction in a coating that keeps fading, especially in a hot cab. Whatever the retention rule says, the paper has its own clock. A clear photo in a searchable place is the version that will still be readable when somebody asks.

This guide is general education for working drivers — not legal, tax, or financial advice. The rules summarised here in plain terms include the suspension of miscellaneous itemized deductions under the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, made permanent by the One Big Beautiful Bill Act; the IRS accountable-plan conditions; the federal Fair Labor Standards Act limits on deductions that take pay below minimum wage; and the Truth-in-Leasing rules at 49 CFR 376.12, including the chargeback-disclosure requirement at 376.12(h) and the forced-purchase provision at 376.12(i), which apply to leased-on owner-operators rather than to W-2 company drivers. State wage-deduction law varies considerably and your own employment agreement or lease governs your situation. Keeping better records helps you show what actually happened — it does not decide what you are owed. When the number is big enough to matter, talk to a CPA or a wage-and-hour attorney in your state. Built by a driver, for drivers.